Mt. Abbot (attempt)

 Trail to Mt. Abbot (13,711 ft) starts from Little Lakes Valley Trailhead (Rock Creek) conveniently located at 10,200 ft. Only Fedor joined me this time. We slept at trailhead and started early in the morning hoping to tag Mt. Abbot via North East Couloir and camp either near Mills lake or Treasure Lakes.

Mt. Abbot map

There is a good trail going up to Mono Pass, but after Ruby Lake, it's all cross country and the higher you go, the more obstacles you encounter, all of them not harder than class 2 though.

Ruby Lake

Mills Lake (top one)

North East Couloir of Mt. Abbot (left)

We was able to get to the beginning of couloir (~13,000 ft) when 3 contributing factors helped me to abort the mission: Fedor start feeling altitude with light headache, storm was forming to the north of us and it was almost 2:00 PM, kind of late. We took few pictures and continue to Treasure Lakes.

Treasure Peak

Descent to the Treasure Lake was difficult (at least class 2) and slow since Fedor's headache become worse, so I was glad we did not go all the way to the peak. He needs more time for proper acclimatization and camping at lower altitude helps a lot.

Fishing at Treasure Lake

Treasure Lakes are at 11,200 ft. After eating soup and drinking hot tea Fedor feel much better and went fishing, but did not catch anything, we need to practice more.

Our campsite

Next morning it was easy stroll to the trail head, I think we stopped at pretty much every lake to test our fishing luck, but still did not catch anything.

Treasure Lake

Little Lake Valley

Mt. Tyndall

 Mt. Tyndall (14,026 ft) located near Mt. Williamson and most of the parties climb them together coming from Shepherd Pass (12,020 ft). We did Williamson in 2019 via North Fork of Bairs Creek (from the east) and Tyndall was not an option at that time, so I have to come back to tackle it. After Mt. Gould, Fedor and Eugene was super motivated to climb 14er.

Crossing Shepherd Creek

Looking back

On the first day we hiked to the second small lake just past the Shepherd Pass, around 12 miles with 7000 ft elevation gain.

Selfie near Shepherd Pass 

It was quite cold at the night and I was glad I bring tent and lend it to Fedor and Eugene, since they did not have sleeping bags adequate for that temperature.

Mt. Tyndall, North Rib right in the middle

Moon rising over the lake

 We set alarms for 6:00 AM, but Fedor and Eugene both choose not to climb Tyndall in the morning due to altitude sickens, so I went by myself. It was only 1 mile to the top from our campsite with 1750 ft of elevation gain. It took me 2 hours to get to the top and another hour to get back. I was done by 9:30 AM.

In the middle of North Rib

Here is few pictures from the summit in different directions.

Mt. Whitney in the distance

Mt. Williamson

Shepherd Pass and our camp (right lake)

Looking back I think we should spend night at Anvil Camp (10,000 ft). That would reduce our efforts to carry camping gear on the 1st day and what's more important minimize altitude sickness, so everyone would have a better chance to climb Tyndall on the following day.